Gone are the days when only the sporting elite enjoyed the supremely cool honour of starring in their own videogames. It now seems that they’re dishing out this virtual immortalisation to pretty much anyone, even if they’re a bumbling, mumbling rapper like 50 Cent. <\/p>\n
With this and its often-underlooked predecessor ‘Bulletproof’ in mind, you’d expect ‘Blood on the Sand’ to be another vanilla cover-shooter with more than an extra helping of Fiddy’s influence and technical direction. What you’ll find, however, is a surprisingly enjoyable, over-the-top kill-fest that’s as brash and ridiculous as the chrome twenty fo’s its protagonist no doubt rode in on.<\/p>\n
The storyline is almost as ludicrously bad as Fiddy’s acting: after playing a gig in some nameless Middle Eastern country, our hero and his crew get screwed out of their payment by a greaseball promoter. Fortunately, said promoter just happens to have compensation in the form of a priceless jewel-encrusted skull (which, as we all know, is a fairly common accessory for today’s modern concert organiser). The skull is promptly nicked by a random (yet amply-bosomed) femme fatale who disappears with the loot and forces Fiddy and his G-Unit sidekicks to give chase.<\/p>\n
The gameplay of ‘Blood on the Sand’ presents itself as the bastard love child of ‘Army of Two’ and ‘Gears of War,’ and inherits more than just a few characteristics from each gun-toting parent.<\/p>\n
Gamers control the lumbering Fiddy from a third-person perspective and can make use of a fairly intuitive ‘Gears’ style cover system to find shelter from the angry terrorist hordes. Jumping between cover points while navigating the derelict streets and buildings is fluid and simple, and contributes to an already frantic pace. The completely superfluous ‘team actions’ from ‘Army of Two’ make a rather pointless appearance though, forcing you to open doors and scale walls using your other homeboy. Although not a negative addition to the game, it is ultimately about as useful as a pork pie at a bar-mitzvah.<\/p>\n
The core gameplay revolves around earning points to unlock extras and upgrades, achieved by mowing down waves of foes and generally blowing stuff up. Doing this quickly and with as much wanton destruction as possible earns even more points, so look forward to some hardcore running-and-gunning and very little concern for personal safety. <\/p>\n
However, pausing to savour one’s savage maimings is encouraged and there are bonus items craftily scattered around every level: finding all the hidden paintings and shooting all the hidden targets will add to the overall score and unlock more gear, a definite must for the discerning lunatic gangster rapper\/mercenary.<\/p>\n
To top the speedy frag-spree off are timed events which earn the player even more bonus points: these can be anything from eliminating a group of snipers within ten seconds, to killing 10 close range enemies within half a minute, to seeing how many times you can squeeze ‘motherfluffer’ into a single sentence. (Okay, that last one was made up, although parents and otherwise concerned individuals should be warned that Fiddy dishes out profanities like a ghetto dentist dishes out gold teeth.)<\/p>\n
As for Mr. Cent’s weapons, dispatching evildoers can be done in two ways: the first with the traditional arsenal of handguns, rifles, machineguns and rocket launchers, and the second using brutal melee executions called Counterkills.<\/p>\n
Apparently, apart from being a proficient rapper, talented actor and staunch women’s rights activist (cough cough), Fiddy is also skilled in a variety of martial arts and street fighting styles. These can be engaged at close range and require some traditional button-bashing quick-time events to execute them correctly. Sadly, as much fun as it may be cracking skulls and stabbing people, players will likely skip them over in favour of the far more effective weapon buffet.<\/p>\n
Arcade-style shooters are inherently simplistic and entertainingly unrealistic by their very nature, but the average gamer will find ‘Blood on the Sand’ a little too easy. This is due to Fiddy’s almost impenetrable (and excessively muscled) physique, which is remarkably resilient considering the negligible smattering of armour it has protecting it. In fact, for the most part, players will soak up bullets with twisted relish while ignoring all sensible options for cover or retreat, and entire rooms of bad guys can be easily cleared before there’s even the slightest concern for one’s health bar. Aggravating the problem is the unnecessary bullet time feature (dubbed ‘Gangsta Fire’) which, although quite sexy looking, just makes dealing death that much more effortless.<\/p>\n
The graphics in ‘Blood on the Sand’ are good for a gangsta-themed shooter (Gangsta-themed shooters have their own visual standards? Ed), and while they won’t compete with ‘Gears’ in terms of detail or art direction, they are an improvement when compared to ‘Army of Two.’ The war-torn streets are suitably ravaged, and the effects and textures do a satisfactory job of putting you in the action. The soundtrack is particularly good if you enjoy the lyrical stylings of Fiddy and his rapping cohorts (there are 18 tracks recorded specially for the game), but be warned that the music selection is limited to hip-hop only. An instrumental backing can be substituted for the rap tracks, but there is some added immersion to be had in popping caps while listening to the protagonist babbling on about hot skanks and cold champagne.<\/p>\n
In closing, even though ‘Blood on the Sand’ is a bit of a creatively onanistic experience for 50 Cent, players will ultimately find it an enjoyable one once they realize that it doesn’t take itself very seriously.<\/p>\n
It revels in its own over-the-top extravagance and makes for the gaming equivalent of a Michael Bay ‘popcorn movie,’ which is really what video games are supposed to be about. Is it the pinnacle of third-person cover-based shooters? Not really. Is it going to dethrone ‘Gears of War’ and spark newfound debates between X360 fanboys and PS3 loyalists? Probably not. But is it fun to play? Hell yeah it is. And, if one cares to look a little closer, there’s actually a fair amount of polish under all that garish gangsta bling.<\/p>\n
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